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HEWITT GIVES MASTER A SPANKING
by Linda Pearce
Monday 27 September 1999
Australia is through to its first Davis Cup final in six years after Lleyton Hewitt
yesterday handed a straight-sets spanking to the arrogant Russian who had promised
him a tennis lesson.
So to the next potential challenge: squeezing Pat Rafter and Mark Philippoussis into
the team to play France in the final in December.
Rafter, his courtside presence an inspiration to the depleted Australian team all
week, is an automatic inclusion should his injured right shoulder permit it.
But Philippoussis, back home in Florida nursing the surgically-repaired knee he
injured at Wimbledon, will face a strong challenge for the second singles place from
Hewitt.
In the leading pair's absence, the supposed vegie patch at ANZ Stadium delivered
Hewitt's finest moment, just as it had on Friday for the once-unheralded Wayne
Arthurs - now tipped by captain John Newcombe as capable of winning Wimbledon -
against the same sour and cocky opponent.
Hewitt, still seven months short of his 19th birthday but now with a 4-0 Davis Cup
record including two top-10 victims, humbled world No.2 Yevgeny Kafelnikov 6-4, 7-5,
6-2 to take the decisive third point after Australia's lead had been cut to 2-1 by
Saturday's doubles loss.
Arthurs then completed his own cup fairytale with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Marat Safin in
the dead final rubber to claim the 4-1 result captain John Newcombe had privately
predicted before it all began.
Yet sweetest of all was the fact that Hewitt's inspired performance forced
Kafelnikov to yet again eat his words, although the Russian was ungracious to
the end. At his news conference, Kafelnikov trotted out an expanded range of
excuses, while saying Hewitt failed to impress him and did not have a big
enough game to win a major tournament.
``Is that what he said, was it?'' Hewitt asked. He had said he wanted to ``kill''
Kafelnikov on the court, before branding him a bad loser. ``He's been a big mouth
all week and it really has just come back in his face. If there was a lesson to be
learned, I think he should have learned that he shouldn't mouth off.''
Hewitt's hat is now firmly in the ring for a role in the final, expected to be
played on clay in either Nice or Bordeaux from 3-5December. ``I've come out and I've
played my best and I've put my hand up,'' Hewitt said.
``If Flip (Philippoussis) wants to give 110percent and he wants to work for his
sport, then at the end of the day it's up to Newk and Rochey.''
So to Newcombe goes the last word. Having joined in an Arthurs-led three cheers for
Rafter, he squashed a potato on to the Brisbane grass - lest Kafelnikov forget - and
vowed that his team would go to France and return with the Davis Cup.
``That's our job to do now. King Arthurs has shown us the way to the Holy Grail and
we're after it.''
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